Lt. Ray showed a media video of scenes taken during the Quail Ridge Fire from March of 2011, along with audio of calls to 911 and of radio communications among the firefighters. We have some of the finest firefighters around, with great inter-operability among organizations, but we never want to go through that again.

Sadly, only a few members of the public were in attendance at the meeting. We could have learned so much. Yes, the Southwest’s fire season has already started – there was a two-acre fire in the Mimbres last month, there’s new fire in Southern California, and the ongoing fire of Estes Park, Colorado.

We are in a serious drought. In fact, 2012 was the 2nd driest year on record for New Mexico, per our state climatologist. Don’t let our recent snow fool you; we need several weeks of continuous rain to ‘catch up.’

The volume of 1000-hour fuels in the urban/wildland interface around Silver City (three to eight inch trees with insufficient moisture to keep them from burning), is pretty, darned voluminous. And that’s not even considering the high terpenes of fuels like juniper and pinon.

Our terrain is difficult with many arroyos and hills. Our winds are more frequent and more sustained. And, while our prevailing winds come out of the west, local vortices exist in every neighborhood.

If firefighters are faced with dry fuels, in wind, in difficult terrain, it's next to impossible to predict fire behavior that could be racing up hill at 40 miles per hour. So, fire-fighters will be unable to save your house because they cannot risk their lives to save property that’s not Fire Wise (www.firewise.org).

Lt. Ray spoke of neighbors’ needs to dispose of, trash, brush & tree debris, to clean and mow to at least 30 feet from your home, and to move propane tanks and woodpiles farther away. If your home is up hill from prevailing winds, make that distance 50 feet.

We need volunteers with trucks to take the trash, brush & tree debris to the dump. We need Grant County support to take it at no charge. And please, don’t throw trash and brush in our arroyos – it helps them burn hotter, longer, and send spot fires higher to distant places, like your roof. And then one day, if there is a flood, your debris will back up and break someone’s retaining wall.

Every family needs an emergency evacuation plan that includes where to meet if a neighborhood, a school, or a business is evacuated. We need to keep a small can of auto gas in a safe place to fill the car’s tank so we aren’t caught unaware. We need to think and know which streets or roads we may need to use to get to safety.

We need to turn off the gas to the house before we evacuate and take steps to protect valuables we may have to leave behind. And, we need “Grab N Go" bags for each member of the family. There’s a list of things to consider at the end of this article.

Most of us in Silver City and in the urban/wildland interface around it live in terrain that makes it difficult to fight fire. It's dry, and the turpins in piñon, juniper and ponderosa are enormous. Our spring days are particularly windy. And, we're completely unaware.

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